


Ace of Spades

by versti_fantur



Category: Gentleman Jack (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Obscure Regency card games, Écarté
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23842510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/versti_fantur/pseuds/versti_fantur
Summary: With the quarantine enforcements wearing down on her, Anne plays a relaxing game of cards with her wife. Except it's not relaxing. At all.AKA Ann has a secret talent for gambling
Relationships: Anne Lister (1791-1840)/Ann Walker (1803-1854)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 40





	Ace of Spades

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I spent more time learning Écarté than actually writing this fic. It's a bloody difficult game to understand! (Or maybe I'm just stupid and bad at cards lmao)

If there was one thing Anne hated, it was a lack of control. But now with the quarantine enforcements keeping her stuck at Shibden, she felt useless. And maybe a little stir-crazy. And so several times a day she would find herself retreating to her and Ann’s private parlour, slamming the door (Marion could be so _infuriating_ sometimes) and collapsing onto a chair with an irritated sigh. On one such occasion, Ann looked up from her knitting and gave her a sympathetic smile.

“Would a game of cards take your mind off it?” She asked, already reaching for a deck as Anne sat up, massaging her temples to alleviate the headache that was beginning to form there.

“Go on then,” she smiled, drawing the side table between them so they had a space to play and a small purse from her pocket, tipping out a few coins. “What game were you thinking?”

“Écarté?” She said, shuffling the cards, and Anne nodded, mildly distracted by how cute Ann was when she spoke French. 

“I’ll try and go easy on you.” She winked, and Ann giggled, the ringlets by her face bouncing as she moved, and Anne questioned again quite how she managed to get quite this lucky.

“Don’t you dare.” Ann dealt the cards, a pile of two and a pile of three to each of them, leaving another in the centre as the trump card. “Your turn first.” Anne picked up her cards and frowned, biting her lip as she concentrated.

“I’d like three cards,” she said after a moment of deliberation

“No deal,” Ann smiled innocently. 

“Two?” Ann finally relented and handed over two cards from the deck, replacing them with the two discarded ones from Anne’s hand. Anne smirked, she was going to win this with ease!

\-----

Several rounds later, and with substantially less money than she had started with, Anne threw the deck of cards onto the table in defeat, her hair falling out of its bun from where she’d been clutching at it. Ann, however, was still perfectly composed, and nonchalantly counting the growing pile of coins that had accumulated on her side of the table. 

“ _How_?” Anne eventually asked, a look of mild desperation in her eyes; she’d played cards with soldiers, nobility, _everyone_ , and she’d always been able to beat them at least some of the time. And yet little Miss Walker (or should she say the new Mrs Lister) had consistently outwitted her. Well, she was always full of surprises.

“I’m just lucky, I guess,” Ann replied with a cheeky smile “Thank you for the 2 shillings and sixpence!” _Two shillings and sixpence_?! That was even more than she’d thought. “Would you like to play something else? Bezique perhaps?”

“ _No_!” Anne cried before she could stop herself, and Ann fell into peals of laughter, her shoulders shaking as she tried to conceal it, “I’m never playing cards with you again, I’ll become penniless!”

“Please?” Ann said, gasping for breaths between more giggles, and Anne rolled her eyes.

“ _Fine_ ,” she sighed, “Though I do feel as though I’ve married a master cards player, just so she can trick me out of all my money” Ann leant over the card table and kissed her playfully.

“You still love me though,” Ann smiled her most angelic smile, batting her eyelashes too, and Anne couldn’t refrain from kissing her again.

“Yes, I do,” she leant their foreheads together as they broke apart, their position awkward from the card table between them but neither seemed to care, all thoughts of the next game of cards forgotten in favour of each other.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos make my day! And if you want to check out Écarté, [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cart%C3%A9) is the wiki link! (If you understand it _please_ explain it to me I'm still so confused)
> 
> EDIT: 2 shillings sixpence in 1833 is equivalent to about £75 or $93 so Anne isnt just freaking out over petty cash xD


End file.
